Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-21

Seeiueu 10 spring mySteTlousiy
from the heated earth like
the warriors from the ground when
Cadmus at the command of the oracle
planted the teeth of the serpent on the
site of ancient Thebes More still than
this were strange epedemics evidently
associated with the persistent heat
breaking out with disastrous results
among horses and inferior animals
the prostration and death of horses
throughout the country under circum-
stances of driving and working that
in ordinary seasons was borne with
singular immunity from even suffering
Indeed an epedemic almost OF sum
stroke among horses even where Illus
trated in their food, drink and protec-
ton, revelation which kept pace
| with the fearful incident of the human
family of whose deadly character
the one hundred and seventy-six
deaths in one day in July in the city
of Chicago (the thermometer marking
"a only is an eloquent but mournful
and instructive illustration. OF course
scientific research or scrutiny has, to
this moment, had no leisure or oppor-
tunity of dealing with the problem as
to what extent this persistent heat
which never for a moment scarcely
relinquished an atom of its humidity,
influenced the death rate of adults in
the East.
1t has not attempted to say, could
not if it wished, one line, or suggest
the number of those who might have
lived for many years inordinarily good
health but for the physical prostration
developed by ''the heated term,"
which dissipating the natural energy
of resistance to disease, opened wide
the gates to the operation of causes of
a morbid character, which under or
dinary circumstances might have
been fought successfully, the full res
toration to health, the happy outcome
of the struggle, but here defeat and
death. The record would lack singu-
lar factors of fidelity and essential
elements OF fullness and strength if
hydrophobia were forgotten, that
most frightful of all diseases the
human family has ever derived form
the brute creation. This season has
been voluminously rich in its illustra-
tions of its presence and distribution in
the East. Rabid animals have roamed
in the most crowded thoroughfares
OF our great metropolis, day after day
and night after night, wandered with
deadly possibilities about the lanes
and alleys of the inland towns; even
the most remote and less frequented
of country places have known NUM-
berless instances of their dread appear
ance among them during the present
season. Though the genius OF Pasteur
has somewhat lessened the dangers
and mitigated the horrors of this dis
ease, it still remains something the
mere mention of which chills the
blood with terror and forbids the set
tlement of place, no matter how
rich, beautiful or attractive, that is
associated with the frequent pres
ence or production OF rabid
animals. More still, the intense
humidity OF the heat has devel-
oped swarms and swarms of
countless millions of mosquitoes,
which fill the days with apprehen-
sion-the night with horror, battle
and suffering. Nothing but fan
fashioned out OF barbed wire can keep
these bloodthirsty creatures at bay
and when they can't sting their bark
is almost as painful as their bite. In
one respect the eastern mosquito diff
fers from his brother on ''the shore of
the Sunset Sea-" He bites only at
night. This is probably as much of
an eastern man as the average mos
quito can stand. This, however, is
the fact, whatever be its explanation.
Yes, the experience of our visitor
rerently from the East "has not been
very fascinating"